A Tragic Melody
by Dawn Ketchum
Summary: A CD shop...A cashier...A customer...A message...A note...a one-shot Pearlshipping fic for SkeletonKnight's contest.


Ash stepped inside A Tragic Melody, looking for Dawn. A Tragic Melody was a shop that sold CDs, and Dawn was one of the cashiers, who Ash had a crush on. He saw her, and smiled.

"Hey, Dawn. How are you doing today?" He asked.

"I'm fine. What about you?" She asked.

"I'm good." Ash said.

"Well, welcome back to A Tragic Melody. You've been buying CDs here since, eight months ago, you..."

"You memorized the number of months I've came here? How romantic." Ash joked.

Dawn blushed. "What do you expect? I get bored sometimes."

"So, when you're bored, you memorize how long your customers have been here?"

"Yep."

"Don't you think that's...a bit weird?"

"Not at all. What do you do when you're bored?"

 _I think about you, or about how many days I have left._ Ash thought. When he thought 'the days I have left,' he meant tonight. He had cancer, and he wasn't going to live any longer.

"Uh, Ash?" Dawn asked, bringing him back to reality. "What do you do when you're bored?"

"Oh, I, uh...listen to the CDs." Ash lied. He never opened the CD packs, which made him feel guilty, because over the past month, Dawn kept asking him if he opened them yet.

"Have you opened them?" Dawn asked.

"Uh..yeah." Ash lied, feeling even more guilty.

Dawn immediately blushed. "Well...what did you think about it?"

"Huh? About what?" Ash asked.

"About the message inside the CD." Dawn said. "You _did_ open them, right?"

"Actually, no. I'm sorry for lying." Ash said.

Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, no, it's okay! No need to apologize. Which CD do you want now?"

Ash thought for a moment. Should he really buy one, even if he was never going to listen to it? What was the point, especially if he was dying?

"Uh, i'll get Sorry." Ash said.

"Ash, don't apologize about not opening the CDs, it's perfectly fine..."

"What do you mean? I want Sorry 'cause I like it. The song, I mean."

"Oh. Sorry. I like that song too, but...oh no! We don't have it! We just got a new box of CDs, and I know for a fact that we have one copy of Sorry...why don't you tell me your address, so I can drop it off later?" Dawn asked.

"Uh..." Should he? Dawn might come in twenty minutes, and Ash would still be living then. When Dawn came, Ash would tell her that he loved her, whether she felt the same or not. After all, he had nothing lose. "Sure. I live on Pearl Street."

...

After five hours, Dawn finally found the CD. She wrote _I love you_ on the CD, like she had been doing for the past month, and walked towards Pearl Street. She found Ash's house, and rang the doorbell. No one answered. Dawn rang the doorbell again, but still no one answered. She rang the bell four times, seven times, ten times, when finally the door opened, but it wasn't Ash opened the door. Instead, the door was opened by a tall, auburn-haired woman, who looked like she had been crying for some time.

"Hi! I'm here to see Ash. Is he here?" Dawn asked.

The woman seemed trying hard not to cry. "A-Ash? Haven't you heard?"

Dawn shook her head.

"He died."

Dawn almost collapsed. Ash died? Ash _died?_ Why!?

"How?" Dawn asked, crying.

"He had cancer for a long time. It killed him. I'm his mom, who are you?" The woman asked.

Dawn wiped away her tears. "I'm Dawn Berlitz."

Ash's mom looked at her. "I think you should go to his room. It's the first room on your right."

...

Dawn entered Ash's room, which was covered in all the CDs he'd bought from her. _Why would he buy them if he never listened to them?_ Dawn asked herself. She spotted a small note on his bed, with her name on it. Dawn picked up the note, and began to read it.

 _Dear Dawn,_

 _First of all, I apologize for not to telling you about my cancer. I am really Sorry. Get the pun? Well...I don't think this is a time for jokes. But...I want you to know, I felt really guilty about not opening the CDs, even when you asked me so nicely too. So right now, I did, and I found your messages. I want you to know I love you too. It's probably too late now, but...please, don't dwell on my death. Go on, live your life, meet other people, just...don't forget about me. I'll always love you._

 _Love, Ash_


End file.
